• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.53-58
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• 2015

Recombinant erythropoietins (EPOs) are an important class of biotherapeutics that stimulate red blood cell production. The quality, safety, and potency of EPO variants are determined largely by their glycosylation, which makes up nearly half their mass. Thus, detailed glycomic analyses are important to assess biotherapeutic quality and establish the equivalency of biosimilar EPOs now coming to market. High-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) has recently emerged as the premier tool for glycan analysis in EPOs. Using the accurate mass measurements provided by high-resolution MS, the compositions of even large, complex glycans can easily be determined. When combined with a nano-LC separation, differentiation of structural isomers also becomes a possibility. These components, together, provide a comprehensive picture of biotherapeutic glycosylation. In this review, we provide an overview of MS-based analytical platform for glycomic characterization of EPO biotherapeutics and biosimilars.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.101-105
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• 2004

The laser ablation/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry is applied to the isotopic analysis of solid samples using a home-made instrument. The technique is convenient for solid sample analysis due to the onestep process of vaporization and ionization of the samples. The analyzed samples were lead, cadmium, molybdenum, and ytterbium. To optimize the analytical conditions of the technique, several parameters, such as laser energy, laser wavelength, size of the laser beam on the samples surface, and high voltages applied on the ion source electrodes were varied. Low energy of laser light was necessary to obtain the optimal mass resolution of spectra. The 532 nm light generated mass spectra with the higher signal-to-noise ratio compared with the 355 nm light. The best mass resolution obtained in the present study is ~1,500 for the ytterbium.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2011

China's rapid economic growth has resulted in significant environmental side effects. Therefore, China has been interested in reducing her dependence on foreign oil and gas by developing technologies needed for hydrogen, in addition to her increasing energy mix of nuclear and renewable energy form, such as solar and wind power. There are three isotopes of hydrogen, i.e. protium (P or H), deuterium (D), and tritium (T). Both deuterium and tritium are important materials in nuclear fuel cycle industry. Tritium is one of the critical radioactive nuclides. Planning for and implementing contamination control as a part of normal operation and maintenance activities is an important function in any hydrogen facility, especially tritium facility. The development of hydrogen isotopes analysis is the key issues in this area. Mass spectrometry (MS) with medium (about 600) and high resolution (> 1,400) is commercially available; however, the routine analysis of hydrogen isotopes is done with low-resolution MS (< 200) in China. This paper summarizes the progress of MS measurement technology for hydrogen isotope abundance in China, focusing on our lab's research program and technical status. An analyzing method has been introduced for accurate measurement of tritium abundance in the H.D.T system by low resolution MAT-253 MS. The quotient of compression ratio coefficient is determined by building up equipment for laboratory-scale preparation of secondary standard gases and by considering the difference in sensitivity between hydrogen isotopes. The results show that the measured value is reproducible within the relative error range of 0.8% for gas samples of different tritium abundance.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.115-119
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• 2014

The Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa - Lecythidaceae) is considered a product with high economic value, being a food widely appreciated for its nutritional qualities. Although previous studies have reported the biochemical composition of Brazil nut oil, the knowledge regarding the phospholipid composition exhibits a disagreement: the composition of fatty acids present in the structures of phospholipids is reported as being different from the composition of the free fatty acids present in the oil. In this work, solid phase extraction (SPE) was employed to provide a fast extraction of the phospholipids from Brazil nuts, in order to compare the phospholipid profile of the in nature nuts and their fatty acids precursor present in the oil. The major phospholipids were characterized by mass spectrometry approach. Their fragmentation pattern through direct infusion electrospray ionization ion-trap tandem mass spectrometry ($ESI-IT-MS^2$) proved to be useful to unequivocal characterization of these substances. High resolution (HR) experiments through ESI using a quadruple time of flight mass spectrometry (QTOF) system were performed to reinforce the identifications.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.39-43
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• 2017

Meldonium is a drug for treating ischemia by expanding the arteries but it can also enhance the performance of sports players. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has included it in the list of prohibited substances since 2016. Meldonium is one of the challenging substances for anti-doping testing because it is difficult to recover by general liquid-liquid or solid phase extraction due to its permanent charge and high polarity. Therefore, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is currently used by injecting a diluted urine sample (known as the "dilute-and-shoot" strategy). There is no loss of target compounds in the extraction/cleanup procedure but its high matrix effect could interfere in their separation or detection from the endogenous urinary compounds. We report a single method using high-resolution mass spectrometry that can be used for both screening and confirmation, which follows the "dilute-and-shoot" strategy. In this method, the endogenous compounds' interfering peaks in the mass spectrum are separated at a high resolution of FWHM 140,000, and the results are suitable for substance detection following the WADA guidelines. The interferences in the obtained mass spectrum of the urine matrix are identified as acetylcholine, lysine, and glutamine by further analysis and database searching. Validation of the method is performed in routine anti-doping testing, and the limit of detection is 50 ng/mL. This method uses simple sample preparation and a general reverse phase HPLC column, and it can be easily applied to other substances.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.173-177
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• 2023

Kendrick plots offer an alternative visualization of mass spectral data which reveals ion series and patterning by turning a mass spectrum into a map, plotting the fractional mass (wrongly called mass defect) as a function of mass-to-charge ratios and ion abundances. Although routinely used for polymer mass spectrometry, two unreported applications of these Kendrick plots are proposed using the program "kendo2": the graphical recalibration of a mass spectrum via the simulation of a theoretical fractional mass and a multi-segment fit; and the rapid evaluation of scan-to-scan variation of accurate mass measurements used as tolerances for the blank subtraction of UPLC-MS data files. Both applications are compatible with any type of high-resolution MS data including LC/GC-MS(/MS).

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.50-53
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• 2012

After success of sildenafil for the treatment of erectile dysfunction, a large number of its analogues have been approved from FDA. Recently, the illegal dietary supplements which include sildenafil, vardenafil, tadalafil, or analogues of these drugs as ingredient have been widely distributed. Therefore, the determination of the residue of synthetic phosphodiesterase- 5 (PDE-5) inhibitors in dietary supplements is highly required due to indiscriminate and unintentional overdose caused nausea, chest pains, fainting and irregular heartbeat. In this paper, we report a rapid and sensitive analytical method for the simultaneous determination of nine phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors by liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry. The present method was found to be accurate and reproducible with 40 ${\mu}g$/g of the limit of quantification for the nine PDE-5 inhibitors. The developed method can be successfully applied to the analysis of the seven illegal dietary supplements.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.65-68
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• 2011

The effects of column length and particle size on the efficiency of separation and characterization of phospholipids (PLs) are investigated using nanoflow liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (nLC-ESI-MS-MS). Since PLs are associated with cell proliferation, apoptosis, and signal transduction, it is of increasing interests in lipidomics to establish reliable analytical methods for the qualitative and quantitative profiling of PLs related to biomarker development in adult diseases. Due to the complexity of PLs, the preliminary separation of PLs is necessary prior to MS analysis. In this study, length of capillary column and the particle size of reversed phase ($C_{18}$) packing materials are varied to find a reliable condition for the high speed and high resolution separation using 8 PL standard mixtures. From experiments, it was found that a capillary column of nLC-ESI-MS-MS analysis for PL mixtures can be minimized to a 5 cm long pulled tip column packed with 3 ${\mu}m$ $C_{18}$ particles without losing resolution.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.172-178
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• 2021

HYIpro-3-1 is an adjuvant for preventing or treating inflammatory growth diseases. In this study, we identified the metabolic pathway of HYIpro-3-1 in human liver microsomes (HLMs) by quadrupole-orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (HR-MS) and characterized the major human cytochrome P450 (CYP). Ten metabolites were identified, including one O-demethylation (M1), two O-demethylation and monohydroxylation (M2 and M3), and seven monohydroxylation metabolites (M4-M10). Based on the HR-MS² spectra, the metabolites are divided into two groups of monohydroxylated metabolites according to the hydroxylation position. We verified that HYIpro-3-1 is metabolized by CYP in HLMs, CYP2B6 is mainly involved in O-demethylation, and various CYPs are involved in the monohydroxylation of HYIpro-3-1.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.111-115
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• 2016

Glycerol was identified and isolated from endogenous interferences during analysis of human urine using high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) for doping control. Urinary sample preparation was simple; the samples were diluted with an organic solvent and then analyzed using a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry ("dilute and shoot" method). Although the interfering ion peaks were observed at the similar retention time of glycerol, the inference could be identified by isolation with HRMS and further investigation. Thus, creatinine was identified as the endogenous interference for glycerol analysis and it also caused ion suppression resulting in the decrease of glycerol signal. This study reports the first identification and efficient isolation of endogenous interferences in human urine for "dilute and shoot" method. The information about ion suppression could be novel to prevent overestimation or a false result for antidoping analysis.